[OT] PC Video Conferencing - How ?

["Hawes,Timothy Edward (GEG)" <haweste@xxxxxxx>]

Apologies for the OT post but you guys are the best source of knowledge
I
know :-)

Here's what I want to do:
There's a few periods when I'm going to be away from home and would like
to
keep in touch with my family. I can get an local internet connection
wherever I'll be and it would appear that I can save a huge amount on
call
charges if we converse over the 'net. The major problem is one of the PCs
I
intend to use is "getting on a bit". I can't replace it ATM so I
need to
upgrade it to enable video conferencing.

AFAICS my options are to upgrade the Compaq's OS to Win98SE and use either
a
USB camera (need a USB port expansion card), or my camcorder (need
Firewire
card). The USB cameras I've seen appear to include VC software, would I
need
any special software to use my camcorder ?

Also, any suggestions as to which modem to buy for the Compaq ? Some
state
"video conferencing ready" or words to that effect, others don't.
Does it
matter ?

What webcams / software should I get, and what should I avoid ?

Here's what I've currently got:
------------------------------------------
Digital camcorder with Firewire out.

IBM Thinkpad laptop: 900 Mhz Pentium III, 512 Mb RAM, 20GB HDD, Win2K
Pro,
integrated modem, USB port, PCMCIA slots etc


Compaq Prolinea:
100 Mhz Pentium II  (yeah I know, I know ;-)  )
4MB RAM (can be upgraded to 512MB IIRC, I'll need at least 128MB with
the
slow processor ?)
650 MB HDD
Win 3.11
No modem (see above)
No USB ports (GBP ~17 from CPC)
No Firewire (GBP ~30 from CPC)
No CD ROM (say GBP 30)


All comments welcome.


Many thanks,

Tim H.

+

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